Empty Silence
by lukadarkwater
Summary: The Tekkit war from Lomadia's point of view. Xephos X Lomadia


Lomadia raced through the dark forest; the sweat that dripped into her eyes making it hard to see. The branches seemed to reach out and tug at everything they could get a hold on as if to try and slow her process.  
She paused for a moment, one hand on her knee and the other braced against a tree, to try and catch her breath. She hunched over and swiped a gloved hand across her forehead to try and clear the sweat before it had a chance to make it down into her eyes, but to no avail.  
Ever since she had heard the sounds of the fire, the explosions, and seen the herds of animals running away from the direction of where most of the others lived, she'd had but one thought on her mind: "Xephos."  
She and Xephos had always had a bit of an odd relationship. They had met a few years ago when Lomadia had been out making her daily check of her snares.  
She had come to one set deep into the woods and found it had been triggered, as she was looking up to see what the strung-up snare had captured, the words "I've cut it, Xephos!" were cried from the bushes behind the tree. She'd had just enough time to register the words before the full force of a falling body had hit her smack on the head.  
She had lain on the ground, pinned by the weight of the person above her, every bit as confused as one would expect a person to be in the situation, until the body spoke.  
"Oh dear, I think I landed on someone Honeydew!"  
"Damn bloody right you did." Lomadia wheezed from underneath him. "Get off of me, you bloody fool!"  
"Oh right, sorry about that." He quickly scrambled off of her and then reached down, offering her a hand.  
"Was it Duncan again? That idiot is always getting in the way- Oh hello. I don't believe I know you." Said the voice from behind the tree, which then revealed himself to be a short, plump, ginger, dwarf.  
"I'm Lomadia," she said to the dwarf,  
"I'm Honeydew! It's a pleasure to meet ya!" He said and stuck out a hand, which she shook before turning and looking at the man who had fallen on her "And you are?"  
"I'm Xephos," the brown haired man said "I'm also glad to meet-er- fall on you?"  
"Yeah, thanks a lot for that." She snapped back  
He shrugged "I didn't mean to, I got caught up in this trap and-"  
"Oh yeah, that is another thing! What are you doing bumbling into all my traps like a bloody idiot?"  
"This is yer trap?" Said Honeydew looking up at the wire still wrapped in the tree.  
"Yes, it is mine and it will take a very long time to reset now that you've gone and messed it all up."  
"Don't blame me! Xephos here was the one wh' messed up all yer wires. He never watches where he puts his feet!"  
"Hey! I was looking at the map, it's not my fault I didn't see the silly thing!"  
Lomadia sighed, seeing the conversation was getting them nowhere and had then ordered them to help her re-set the traps.  
After that, she had invited them back to her house to have dinner and then sent them on their way.  
They had run into each other more than once over the next couple of months, and slowly a friendship had been born. At first, Xephos had never been without Honeydew when he came to see her, but as time passed, he showed up alone more and more often.  
She hadn't given much thought to it until one day, about a year after she had met Xephos, when her friend Nilesy had come to visit.  
It was a bit of a rainy day and so they had been inside when Xephos had come barging in, complaining of the weather and cold.  
Lomaida, who had been audience to more then a few of these rants, had quickly shoved a warm mug of tea into his hands before sitting him down in front of the fire and introducing him to Nilesy.  
They had hit it off well, but it turned out that Xephos had only been passing through so he left shortly after.  
After she had come back inside from seeing him off, Nilesy had remarked "So, is this your new boy, eh Lomadia?"  
"What?! Xephos? No, ha-ha no way."  
Nilesy had simply quirked an eyebrow and gone back to sipping his tea in silence.  
That single tiny comment had planted a seed in Lomadia's mind, however, that soon blossomed and became a constant nagging thought whenever she was around Xephos.  
Finally, after about a month of wondering and worrying about it, Lomadia decided to just come out and ask him what he though of her.  
The rain which had been plaguing them for a week prior to Xephos' visit finally turned to snow, and so that day they were both huddled in front of the fire as Lomadia listened to him complain about his newest redstone wiring not working.  
"I mean, I just don't understand why it's not working! I have all the relays set up and all the wires connected but it's just not working." He had slumped back into his chair after finishing and had taken a big drink of tea when Lomaida said "Xephos, do you like me?"  
He had immediately started having a massive coughing fit, caused by the tea he had just taken a drink of, and only managed to answer with "What?"  
"Oh, I don't know. Just wondering."  
"Well, um- er I mean- er."  
"Well, do you or not? Spit it out man!"  
"Yes?"  
"Good"  
Lomadia, satisfied with his answer, had sat back with a smile on her face. They naturally grew closer and closer over the years as time passed and soon their bond was very strong.  
Xephos introduced her to the rest of the people who he lived around: Sips, Sjin, Duncan, Rythian, Zoey, and Minty. She was especially found of Minty, and she and the tiny blonde became close friends as time passed.  
She eventually moved closer to the others so that she wouldn't have to travel so far to see them and, for a while, life seemed perfect.  
That was… until that morning. She had been out behind her house, tending to her owls as she always did each morning; making sure they were all back from their night hunts and that they had no injures when she had heard the first explosion.  
She hadn't given it much thought at first, Duncan was always blowing something up, but when they became more and more constant she became concerned. When the animals began running though, she had known something was wrong.  
Wiping her face a final time, Lomadia straightened herself up and restarted her run. As she came closer and closer to where Xephos and Honeydew lived, smoke began to clog her throat and nose.  
It, joined with the sweat, made it almost impossible to see where she was going and soon she was running blindly through the forest. She soon reached the edge of the fires, and saw to her horror that Xephos' house had already gone up in flames.  
The panic set in about then and she began screaming his name. "Xephos!" she cried, choking on the ash and debris in the air "Xephos!"  
She ran towards the house, desperate for any sign of him, when the ledge under her feet suddenly gave way.  
With a cry, she slid down the steep slope and came to a tumbling stop at the bottom. The roar of the flames was much louder in the ditch and she could see that part of Xephos' home had already collapsed into it.  
As she was gazing at the building, her eyes were drawn to a huddled figure close to the wall. She couldn't make out what it was from her current spot but when it moved, she knew it could not be good.  
She leapt to her feet and rushed over to the figure, careful to avoid the small pockets of fire that still burned around her.  
Once she finally broke through the clouds of smoke that separated her from the house, her heart gave a horrible twist.  
Part of the building had indeed fallen, and trapped partly under it was Xephos. His feet and much of his legs where pinned down by the fallen stone and the armor he was wearing was littered with dings and dents from falling debris.  
Honeydew kneeled beside him, trying his best to patch up all the wounds he could see, but Lomadia knew that there would be no saving his legs.  
She too fell to her knees next to Xephos, trying to collect her thoughts on what to do.  
Honeydew looked up as she knelt, her own fear and pain reflected in his eyes "There was an explosion and he… he was out here trying to find out what was happening…. And the wall…"  
Lomadia grabbed hold of Xephos helmet, throwing it carelessly off to the side, and laid her hand on the side of his face despite the grim mask of grime that covered every inch of it.  
"Lomadia," he said weakly, opening his blue eyes slightly  
"Hush now." She whispered, "We will get you out of this and then we can beat the tar out of whoever did this."  
"I can't feel my legs," he said, his gaze becoming more and more vacant by the second  
"That's fine, that's fine. You will be fine." She said, as the tears began to drip down her nose and fall onto his metal chest plate.  
"What an odd feeling, having no legs," he turned his head slightly, so he could see Honeydew and said "Hey there, friend. I'm glad to see you're alright."  
"Course I am." Honeydew replied said, his own eyes full of tears "It will take more than a falling building to take me out."  
"Honeydew," Lomadia's voice was urgent as she searched desperately through her pack for a healing potion. "Do you have any potions at all?"  
He only shook his head. "All of our stuff was in there," he pointed to the burning shell of a building behind them.  
"Hey, Lomadia," Xephos's tiny voice brought her full attention back to him  
"What is it?"  
"I love you, did you know that?" his hand searched for hers and she grasped it tightly  
"Of course I did, silly. I love you too." She managed to gasp out as the tears began to restrict her throat.  
"And Honeydew, we had some good times, didn't we?"  
"The best, we got up to a lot of stuff together."  
"Yeah, that we did." His voice was so faint Lomadia had to lean in to hear it.  
"That we did," he sighed softly, "You guys are my best friends, did you know that? And I just wanted to tell you that before…. Before I have to go and…"  
He trailed off, and Lomadia felt his hand go limp in hers.  
"Xephos," she sputtered, looking down into his open blue eyes. "Can you hear me?"  
"He's gone, Lomadia," Honeydew said, his tears beginning to fall "He's gone."  
"No, no no no no no no!" She ripped out her knife and sawed through the leather straps that held Xephos's chest plate on. Once she cut through all of them, she heaved the heavy metal off to one side and pressed her head to the spot where she knew she would find his heartbeat.  
It was the same spot she always laid her head on when they would lay together in the quiet of the night, the same spot that she would be able to feel his laugh reverberate through him when she said something stupid or funny.  
Instead of these comforting feelings, however, all she found was cold, empty silence.  
"XEPHOS!" She cried, she hand pumping at his chest where she should have been able to find his heartbeat. "Wake up, please!"  
She pressed her lips to his and breathed air through his still lungs, still pumping with her hands. No response.  
Next to her, Honeydew began the dwarf mourning rituals: beating his chest, howling, tearing at his hair.  
Yet, Lomadia couldn't mourn, wouldn't mourn. He wasn't gone, no, she refused to believe that.  
She kept breathing into his lungs, kept pumping his heart while the tears fell all over his face, leaving trails in the ash and soot.  
As she worked to save him, a constant string of curses and insults fled from her mouth, all trying to goad him into answering.  
Finally, she didn't have the breath to keep going. She sat back and watched as the fire reflected off of the shine of sweat on his face.  
He was gone.  
She crumbled in on herself, arms wrapping around her stomach and the slight bump that rested there.  
He was gone.  
Tears gushed down her face as she struggled to come to terms with it.  
He was gone.  
Her head was on his chest and his arms were around her. The stars shone above them and they were alone.  
"I love you, Lomadia," The words were soft, almost more felt then heard. Lomadia smiled.  
He was gone.  
His hand brushed against the side of her face as they lay in her bed, the sound of a summer storm raging outside of the windows.  
"You are so beautiful," he whispered "More beautiful than anything I've ever seen." And then he had pulled her close and kissed her as the lightning danced outside.  
He was gone.  
All gone.  
The whirling noise of a jetpack tore her from remembering and she looked up to see Lalna hovering a few feet above them.  
"What is going on here?" he asked, confused.  
Yet, Lomadia wasn't focused on his face, but rather on the ring on his finger. A ring that created fire.  
" Did you do this?" She asked, her voice deadly calm.  
"What? The fire oh yeah, that was Sjin and I. Is Xephos alright?"  
"NO HE ISN'T ALRIGHT. HE IS DEAD. DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU!" Her voice ripped from her throat with such force that she tasted blood.  
"He's dead?" The shock on Lalna's face made her see red. Didn't he know his actions had consequences?  
"Yes, he's dead. Forever. He's gone."  
"I'm so so-"  
"DON'T BRING YOUR BLOODY APLOGIES AROUND HERE! YOU AREN'T SORRY OR YOU WOUNDN'T HAVE DONE IT!" She started coughing again as the smoke closed in.  
She stood after the coughing had passed and raised a hand to point at Lalna "I hope you know that your actions have results like this. I hope you live with this guilt for the rest of your life and I hope his ghost haunts you. You- you murderer!"  
Honeydew's hand was on her elbow then "Come on, Lomadia, " he said, his own voice raspy from the tears. "We need to get you out of this smoke."  
He began to lead her away, leaving Lalna hovering over Xephos, but at the last minute, she turned and said, "I swear to Notch, one day I will have my revenge on you. And I hope you are prepared for the amount of pain it will bring to you."  
With that, the dwarf led the lost girl away from the man she loved and the man that killed him.

**_Author's Notes:_**

**_Inspired by Midnightlupus's fic Promises are made to be Broken: a..._**  
**_Well, I have been a major Xephosmadia (is that their ship name? I've never been able to find the cannon one XD) for... well since I learned about the Yogscast so I felt like I should get on writing a fic for them. It's not fluff I'm sorry to say, but sad things sometimes are better _**  
**_So yeah, enjoy!_**  
**_Huge thanks to Midnightlupus for editing as always!_**


End file.
